This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-87270 filed on Dec. 3, 2003 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for testing a MEdia GAteway COntrol (MEGACO) protocol, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for testing call processing performance and conformance of a standard MEGACO protocol-based Media Gateway Controller (MGC) and an Access GateWay (AGW) when replacing a conventional analog switchboard with the AGW so as to construct a Next Generation Network (NGN) that converges voice traffic, which has been serviced by a conventional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), onto an Internet Protocol (IP) net.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a next-generation network indicates a converged Internet Protocol (IP) network that converges various multimedia traffic, such as data and audio, onto an IP packet network. This next-generation network is capable of providing Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service as an alternative to the existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) service. The VoIP is a more economical alternative to the existing circuit switching or the PSTN service.
An Access GeteWay (AGW) has been introduced as a VoIP-based apparatus that can substitute for the existing analog switchboard. In other words, the AGW is converging access equipment that enables various subscriber services, such as general telephone service, Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) service, and private line service, to be accommodated in a single platform. In this case, an accommodated voice traffic is transmitted over a local switching system and the V5.2 interface, and a data traffic is transmitted over a data network. Also, the AGW is connected to a soft switch to transmit voice packet traffic to a packet network and provides packet-based extensibility for accommodation of new subscribers. To accept voice traffic of a conventional Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) network in an IP packet network, the voice traffic must be packetized, and call processing must be performed on the voice traffic by connecting the IP packet network to the conventional TDM network and using a protocol for transmitting the voice traffic to the soft switch.
Establishment of a next-generation network infrastructure has now been carried by several telecommunication providers. In this connection, development of related equipment and technologies for testing the performance thereof are required.
A MEdia GAteway COntrol (MEGACO)/H.248 protocol is a control protocol between the soft switch and a gateway that is standardized according to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication (ITU-T). Also, the MEGACO/H.248 protocol is a master-slave type protocol that instructs a Media Gateway (MG) to connect two MGs, which are terminated by a signal control of a Media Gateway Controller (MGC), or manage them. In particular, an Access GateWay (AGW) performs the same functions as those of a conventional analog switching system in an IP net.